96 FAMILIAR TREES 
It seems, however, mean and petty to be thinking 
of the uses to which its dead body can be put, when 
one is in the presence of the majestic beauty of a 
living Linden, rising in its columnar form like some 
gigantic Norman pillar of verdure from the park or 
lawn. Were it absolutely useless as timber or for 
other purposes, were it even destitute of its melli- 
fluous flowers with their delicious perfume, the 
Linden would yet, for the sake of its form and its 
foliage alone, deserve to be a favourite tree; and it 
is fortunate that, though its excessive formation of 
honey-dew is somewhat of a drawback to its use in 
gardens, it is fairly able to withstand London smoke, 
and thus precedes the Planes and Poplars in enliven- 
ing our parks and squares. It-submits meekly to the 
pruning-knife, and—horribile dictu !—the saw of the 
suburban gardener, and, as a consequence of this 
patience, may be seen in too many places butchered 
into carcases that even the beautifying and healing 
hand of Nature in spring can hardly succeed in 
rendering aught but repulsive. ; 
It is undoubtedly a regrettable circumstance that, 
as they precede many other trees in unfolding, so too 
the leaves of the Linden precede those of most other 
trees in falling, and remind us, as they litter our 
lawns, of the approach of autumn, when we are only 
just beginning to realise our too brief and tardy 
English summer. But at that season we still have 
our Planes in full verdure; and even Sycamores and 
Horse-chestnuts, not to mention Oaks and Elms, 
show no signs as yet of leaving us a mere mass 
of melancholy boughs. 
